Rabbit Farming on a Shoestring Budget

When you only have a limited amount of land to farm, it is very important that you take advantage of all the space available if you expect to make a profit each and every year. I have a very small two acre farm located in a rural area which has very little restrictions on what type of animals you can raise on your property. I have a few neighbors that raise chickens on a mass scale, some of which you may have even purchased in your local supermarket. Others choose to raise beef cattle, while others prefer to raise goats or horses. The point is, I am in the middle of these large farms that raise a variety of animals which take large tracts of land to produce, and I only have 2 acres to work with. After thinking long and hard on my situation, I decided I wanted to raise animals too, but it had to be something that would not only fit the size of my property, it also had to fit into my budget. I also wanted something that others were not raising so my little farm would be as unique as the livestock surrounding me. Then it hit me… Rabbits !

Once the idea was set in my head, I found it very hard to think of anything else ! Upon deciding what I needed and was truly wanting to accomplish, I focused my mind to the task at hand, and now all there was left to do was start building breeder hutches (of my own design) in a place I felt was suitable for their overall comfort and my overall convenience. Of course there was the matter of obtaining the materials I would need to get started, which was readily available at my local hardware store. My experience in construction paid off when it was time to purchase the materials for my first five hutches with little to no waste. At the start of the project, I had already spent $225.00 on the breeder hutches,and now I was ready to begin the construction.

When constructing rabbit pens, its very important to get them off the ground so you are able to periodically remove the manure and assure good ventilation. Instead of building individual hutches, I found it much easier to build a frame for the 1/2 inch mesh flooring, and suspend it in the air 40 inches at the highest point, on a four post system that I had already measured and tamped in the ground using a post hole digger and tamping stick. The frame measured 5’x 10′ constructed out of 2″x 6″ material to insure strength and durability. Once in place, I tacked down the the 1/2 inch mesh wire that measured 4′ wide. and completed the rear flooring (in the hutch area)with pressure treated 5/4 board, in which I over lapped the wire mesh a few inches for security, and began constructing 6 petitions using 2″x4″ and 2″x2″ material to create a frame that would hold the 1/2 inch wire mesh in the front of the pens, and allow me to use the 5/4 (pt) boards in the rear.Once the petitions were completed, it was only a matter of evenly spacing out the petitions across the flooring to create five individual breeding hutches. After installing the petitions, I enclosed the rear of the hutches with petitions that bridged the existing petitions to create a nesting area with a small 5″x 6″ opening for the rabbits to travel from front to rear. The roof was created by ripping 2″x 6″ material diagonally at 6 feet in length, and place on top of each dividing petition to complete the divide and allow water to shed to the rear of the pens. A lattice grid was installed to accept the roofing material, and tin was installed over this for the roof. After the initial construction was completed, I built mesh doors on 2″x 2″ frames for the fronts, and 2″x 4″ and 5/4 (pt) board to create solid doors for the rear, and installed them to complete my five breeding hutches. With this design, I am able to block the small 5″x 6″ opening from front to rear for cleaning and capture purposes. The nesting hutch measures a little less than 2 feet square, while the feeding area measures a little less than 2’x 3′.

This is enough space to get you started, but keep in mind, as your production grows, so will your need for available space to raise your rabbits. I suggest using the same method to create your grow-out pens, making each section approximately 4’x 4′ so you can separate the sexes to eliminate uncontrolled breeding. I will eventually have 10 4’x 4′ grow-out pens to separate not only the sexes, but each months production allowing me to harvest between four and five month old hares for pelts and food.

Once you have adequate space prepared, you are ready to choose a breed you wish to raise. If you want to raise strictly pets to sell, the Dwarf rabbits are a very popular breed. Dutch and a variety of other rabbits are raised not only for pets, but for the meat because of their relatively quick growth and 7 to 8 pound size, while some of the Giant breeds are raised for pelts and meat because they get to be 14 to 25 pounds each ! It helps to visit your local library or nearby book store and read all the material possible before making a definite decision on the breed you choose. I personally have chosen meat producers which also make great pets for anyone wanting to buy a rabbit from you for a pet. There are also books available for the care and breeding of rabbits that will be very helpful to the novice breeder which explains everything you need to know step by step.

You will find that rabbits are one of the easiest animals to feed and care for, and when breeding, the gestation period is only 30 days. The mother will nurse them for the first five or six weeks, and since I feed my rabbits a mixture of pellet feed and vegetables, it makes the little ones very easy to ween. They simple follow their mothers lead, and start eating the apples, carrots or celery whice I provide for snacks on a regular basis. Once the little bunnies are eating, its time to separate them from their mother by placing them in a separate pen and replacing them with the buck so when the time is right, she will breed and you will have 8 to 10 more bunnies within 30 days.

You can always tell when you have a pregnant rabbit on your hands without a physical examination just by watching her actions. If you provide straw or hay in the hutch, you will notice she carries tufts of the material in her mouth about two weeks before the actual birth. Two to three days before the event, she will loose interest in food and pull tufts of fur from her sides to create a nice soft and warm nest for her newborn. Once the litter is born, it seems she will eat twice as much, so be sure to keep plenty of fresh food and water available to her.

Rabbits are very beneficial to my farm because they not only provide an extra income, the manure is very rich in nutrients and provides an excellent fertilizer for my organic vegetables that are grown in the summer months, as well as create an excellent compost for raising earth worms for the local fishermen. When I break all of this down, I can sell the rabbits as pets, sell them as meat, sell the pelts, sell the vegetables grown from the manure, and sell fishing worms to local bait and tackle stores. When I buy the feed in large enough quanities, I am able to feed each rabbit for about .30 cents a week. Since the harvest time is sixteen weeks and the mother provides their food for the first six weeks, I have to feed them a total of 10 weeks at an approximate cost to me of $3.00 each !

Its important that you provide plenty of fresh water as well as fresh feed on a daily basis. The older rabbits are well versed at useing the bottle drinkers, while the newly weened will need a shallow porcelien dish to drink from that really needs to be checked several times a day. It can be time consumeing and I don’t recomend anyone take on the task of raiseing rabbits unless you are certain you can provide the time needed for the proper care and maintenance for your rabbits and pens. Although the breeder pens described in this article are easily maintained, you will need to clean out the rear of the hutches on a weekly basis providing fresh straw or hay for your rabbits to rest as well as nest in.

On a personal note: I had two rabbits given to me this past summer (July ’08) and as of December 1st, 2008 , I have 20 rabbits total with three more litters expected within the month, which should raise my total to close to 40 ! My personal goal was to have 100 rabbits by Easter 2009, and the way things are going, it looks like I will meet that goal if not exceed it.